The collector of the present invention is applicable to any drilling operation wherein a considerable amount of dust is generated during drilling. The collector of the present invention is also capable of collecting water, dust and a mixture thereof in a drilling operation where water is used as a cooling and lubricating agent for the drill bit. An excellent example of drilling which creates considerable dust and uses water is the core drilling of concrete. While not intended to be so limited, the present invention will be described in its application to the core drilling of concrete for purposes of an exemplary disclosure.
One of the problems associated with wet core drilling of concrete lies in the fact that some of the dust is trapped by the water. This concrete dust/water mixture tends to discolor or stain the concrete surface being drilled if not removed and cleaned therefrom.
Prior art workers have devised a water collecting ring constituting a relatively large oval upstanding continuous ring or wall. The device is completely open at the top and bottom and is adapted to sit upon the surface being drilled and to extend about the drilling site. A heavy duty balanced impeller pump may be located within the confines of the ring to collect water, or the collecting ring may be provided with a built-in fitting for the vacuum hose of a wet or dry vacuum source such as a shop vacuum cleaner or the like.
The water collecting ring has a number of drawbacks. First of all, it is relatively large and, if used, sometimes limits the selection of a drilling site. While the oval wall may be provided with a foam seal or the like along its bottom edge, slight wear tends to diminish the usefulness of the seal. Finally, since the device is simply a wall and therefore does not have any sort of top or cover, it cannot prevent splattering.
The present invention is based on the discovery that a far better job of collecting water and dust can be accomplished by a very much simpler and less expensive device. The collector of the present invention is dome-shaped. The drill bit passes through the top of the dome and the bottom of the dome terminates in a flat, annular, planar edge adapted to rest upon the surface of the material being drilled. The collector essentially encloses that portion of the drill bit adjacent the drilling site. The collector is provided with an outlet connectable to the hose of a wet-dry vacuum system. At the bottom edge of the device, opposite the outlet, one or more air inlets are provided to enable the vacuum source to operate properly. The device is held against the surface being drilled by the vacuum and does not require any soft sealing means associated with its planar annular bottom edge. As will be apparent hereinafter, the collector can be rather small having an internal diameter of a dimension less than twice the diameter of the core drill bit.